Brave Hearts

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Eye Care Foundation

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The Brave Hearts
and won the match. This was simply because of the magic spell of bowling by none other than its wicket-keeper turned bowler.
The bowler himself was amazed at the speed with which he could deliver the balls. More than that was the astonishment that he felt about the way his polio affected right hand did the magic on that day. The players of the rival team too were flabbergasted by the way the wicket-keeper turnedbowler bowled the magical spell to win the match.
The bowler concerned was none other than India's master spinner Bhagwat Subramaniam Chandrashekhar. As a member of the Indian cricket team this very Chandrashekhar had carved a permanent place in the history of the world of cricket by his mysterious and magical spin bowling. During the time he was a member of the Indian team, he was considered to be a 'Brahmastra', a weapon that was a curse for the rival teams. On 23rd August 1971, he had taken six important wickets of the English team on English soil by conceding only 38 runs in the process and helped register the first ever victory in a test match for India against England, thereby ushering a new era in Indian Cricket. England had never faced such an ignominious defeat in the entire 39 year history of the test encounters between India and England. During 1972-73 when the English team was touring India, Chandrashekhar registered yet another landmark by capturing 100 wickets in his cricketing career. He even surpassed the record, set by Vinoo Mankad and Subhash Gupta, of capturing the highest number of wickets (34) against England by capturing 35 wickets with an average of 1891 runs.
In a single Ranji Trophy season at home, Chandrashekhar had the distinction of claiming 55 wickets with an average of 16 runs. In the 1976 match which India won against the West Indies on their soil, Chandrashekhar completed 150 wickets of
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